Max Verstappen says his Red Bull’s engine “just dropped dead” at the start of the Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix as the Dutchman faced an early retirement.
Verstappen and Red Bull defied expectations by challenging for pole at the Monaco street circuit, with the four-time world champion defeating both Ferrari drivers before being pipped to pole by Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli.
But the Dutchman’s Sunday afternoon was short-lived as he stalled at the start, swerving out of the way to avoid being collected by the chasing peloton. “Yep, nice. Completely ****. Guys, what the **** man?”, a frustrated Verstappen said on the radio.
After getting going again, Verstappen was forced to bring his Red Bull back to the garage for a lap 1 retirement.
Explaining his woes after the race, Verstappen said he already faced engine concerns on the formation lap, so his stalled start didn’t come as a complete shock.
“Already the formation lap was not going very well and then after that the pre-start was terrible,” Verstappen reported to Sky Sports F1. “There was just no consistency and then the engine just dropped dead. I only got a little bit of power back after the first corner and then the engine sounded really awful. I could not go full throttle, so we brought it back and that was it.”
Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Mercedes, Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing, Isack Hadjar, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Alex Bierens de Haan / LAT Images via Getty Images
F1 heads across the border to Spain next week for the Barcelona-Catalunya Grand Prix, which Verstappen believes will be a much better test of Red Bull’s upgrade progress in recent weeks.
“It’s a completely different track so it will be a good test to see if we actually really made a proper step forward or not because that’s all about high speed and aero performance,” he added. “So, that will be an interesting weekend.”
We want to hear from you!
Let us know what you would like to see from us in the future.
Take our survey
– The Autosport.com Team
Read the full article here
